Switch-plate.



K5. 762,571. mmfiiirnn JUNE14, 1904.

I I. ALEXANDER. swmm PLATE.

. APPLICATION FILED OOTJQ. 1903 10 MODEL.

i l J! Ho. mun;

U ITED STATES mtodjm 14, IDOL PATENT OFFICE,

- swncH-PLATE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 762,571, dated June 14, 19%

I Application filed October 29, 1903. Serial No. 173,984. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: Be itknown tha'tI, JOHN ALEXANDER, acitizen of the United States, residing at Hartford, l

in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Switch-Plates, of which the following is a spcification.

.This' inventionrelates to the manufacture of the plates which are used for covering the mechanisms of push-button electric switches. The ob ect of the invention is to provide a plate which is very cheap to make and which has; hard-metal front face capable of'taking Ii-high finish and which has a back of cheaper material that is a poorer conductor of electricity;

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings shows a plan of one of these plates, and Fig. 2 shows a central section of the plate.

In the manufacture of this plate a pattern of wax or similar material that is easily rendared liquid is made to conform exactly in size and shape to an original blank. The

front face of this pattern of wax or similar material isgiven a coating of plumbagmpreferably by rubbing the plumbago on the surface of the wax until it has the desired thickness, which may be one-sixteenth of an inch;

The plumbago is then hardened by heat or any other suitable means and the wax is melted out. The plunibago shell 1 is then placed in an electroplating-bath containing sulfate of copper or similar substance, and copper is deposited upon it, so as to form a hard copper shell 2 of the same size and shape as theouter face ofthe finished plate. After sufiicient copper has been deposited to form a strong shell bushing-33 of the correct shape and size to receive the push-buttons and the holdingsusceptible of being finished. on the exterior the same as the common solid plate it has a backing of a cheap material which may be a poor conductor or non -oonduc'tor of electricity, so that the switch to which this plate is applied will be more thoroughly. insulated than it would bewith the plate in common use.

This plate does not have to be blanked, trimmed, ground, and polished as the ordinary plate, it does not weigh as much as the ordinary plate, nor does it contain as much expensive mater1al.,,

The invention claimed is 1 As a new article f manufacture, a pushbutton switch-plate having push-button perforations, holding-screw perforations and beveled edges, consisting of an electrodeposited metallic shell covering the front and beveled edges, hard-metal bushings surrounding the openings through the shell, and composition l which is a poorer conductor of electricity than the shell, filling the shell about the bushings and making the plate of uniform thickness, substantially as specified.

JOHN ALEXANDER. Witnesses:

Haney R. 'ILLIAMS, ETHEL M. Lows. 

